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10.6 Snow Leopard PowerPC Development

Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.

Should continued work on 10.6.8 PowerPC and Xcode 3.2.X have its own dedicated thread?

  • Yes - The original thread is for the developer previews and all this dev jargon is derailing it!

    Votes: 1 6.7%

  • Yes - I would like to be able to follow and/or contribute to a 10.6.8/Xcode thread specifically

    Votes: 8 53.3%

  • Yes - I would like to be able to follow and/or contribute to a Developer Preview thread specifically

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Indifferent - I don't care either way i just appreciate the work that's being done

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No - The thread is already for Snow Leopard on PowerPC and all discussion is welcome and relevant

    Votes: 6 40.0%
  • Total voters
    15
  • Poll closed .
OK, I am confused. I just downloaded the Alpha 5 release. Is this the latest and greatest? Should I be downloading something else? I am not an SLPPC developer, just a regular user who wants to try the latest again (I tried a release last year and it was just too buggy to use). Is A5 the latest? Thanks!
 
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mac57mac57 said:
OK, I am confused. I just downloaded the Alpha 5 release. Is this the latest and greatest? Should I be downloading something else? I am not an SLPPC developer, just a regular user who wants to try the latest again (I tried a release last year and it was just too buggy to use). Is A5 the latest? Thanks!
Click to expand...

AFAIK yes, as of this moment, and considering publicly available versions. (To be clear, I do not have anything newer, I work on the toolchain and PPCPorts, not the OS.)
 
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educovas said:
The AHCI kexts I've used in this build is from 10A190 and the version from 10.5.8 is considerably newer. I mentioned this a while ago but I don't know if @barracuda156 tried yet.

I'll be hopefully getting a PowerBook A1138 this week so hopefully I should be able to see what's wrong with keyboard brightness on these machines.
Click to expand...

Sorry for a delay, I will try that out.

I spent all the free time recently on getting PPCPorts to work, which includes, besides obviously testing and fixes, building a lot of stuff, so that people have actual pre-built ports. And then no builds go neatly, something keeps popping up in the need of being fixed. Heh.
 
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mac57mac57 said:
OK, I am confused. I just downloaded the Alpha 5 release. Is this the latest and greatest? Should I be downloading something else? I am not an SLPPC developer, just a regular user who wants to try the latest again (I tried a release last year and it was just too buggy to use). Is A5 the latest? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Yes Alpha version 5 is the latest, it is still in development so any feedback will be greatly appreciated. No need to be a developer as normal usage testing is just as valuable. Check the WikiPost regularly for updates as i try to keep it up-to-date for easy reference.
 
barracuda156 said:
@ChrisCharman @educovas Feature request [not for immediate implementation, but perhaps once we move to update packages instead of whole new images]:
Remove X11 from default image, make it available via an installer. This is desirable, because multiple versions of X11 do not live well together, and a newer/better X11 is available via a port. Which currently requires then an end-user to remove existing Apple X11 manually, which is a hassle. Also, official release of 10.6.8 allowed to install the OS without installing X11; like Rosetta, it was an optional component. There is also an XQuartz version (though targeting 10.5.8), which may be preferred by someone as an alternative.
Click to expand...
Agreed we should remove it and provide a fixed stock version for those that want ‘vanilla’ optional install and a blank canvas for anyone wanting to install X11 or XQuartz without issues.
 
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educovas said:
Could someone confirm if GPT and MBR USB disks are ejecting properly? would be nice to add this to the WikiPost if true.
Click to expand...
They do not. DMGs do not eject properly either. Neither do DVDs believe it or not. Any kind of mountable drive will not unmount properly.

Also a quick note. Avid MC 3.1.1 throws an OpenGL error when booting it. This doesn't happen on Snow Leopard Intel. It's not a critical bug but something to note due to the implications it may have for other built for Leopard programs.
 
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@jktwice, I remember this issue from when I tried SLPPC last year. The work around was easy enough... go through the normal steps to eject the media, them go to the Finder menu and Quit Finder. This causes Finder to quit and restart. The mounted media is no longer there after the restart. It would appear that the Eject actually does work... the desktop just isn't updated with the result! Restarting Finder "fixes" that.

If you don't see a "Quit Finder" selection, use TinkerTool or OnyX to enable Finder to show it.
 
BTW, COMPLETELY unrelated question. Many of us have "Toggle signature" being shown in red font in the middle of our signature block, when viewed from a mobile device. When viewed from a desktop, it does not appear.

WHAT does it mean, and how do we get it to go away?
 
jktwice said:
They do not. DMGs do not eject properly either. Neither do DVDs believe it or not. Any kind of mountable drive will not unmount properly.

Also a quick note. Avid MC 3.1.1 throws an OpenGL error when booting it. This doesn't happen on Snow Leopard Intel. It's not a critical bug but something to note due to the implications it may have for other built for Leopard programs.
Click to expand...

1. They do unmount, it is just not reflected in the Finder.

2. OpenGL matter has been discussed above. Some issues will remain, since all needed components do not exist in open source, and OpenGL stuff can only be borrowed from some earlier build which still had ppc slices in it.
Notice, there are two versions of this framework in our 10.6.8 ppc: generic image has it from 10.5.8, “Nvidia” image has it from 10a190. They may not behave identically.
 
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jktwice said:
They do not. DMGs do not eject properly either. Neither do DVDs believe it or not. Any kind of mountable drive will not unmount properly.

Also a quick note. Avid MC 3.1.1 throws an OpenGL error when booting it. This doesn't happen on Snow Leopard Intel. It's not a critical bug but something to note due to the implications it may have for other built for Leopard programs.
Click to expand...
DMGs and DVDs would be expected. I'm interested on USB drives because when they are formatted as GPT and MBR, they will eject properly and the problem only occurs when the drive is formatted as Apple Partition Map. I'm trying to figure out if the problem is related to Apple partition Map or something else.

I'll try that app at some point and see if I can fix that OpenGL error.
 
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When I first tested A5 on my 15" PowerBook A1095 I reported internet working out of the box - however further on when I opened a browser there was no connection to any sites. I accepted Safari's offer to run diagnostics and something was fixed - all fine now :)

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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FYI to all, ipfw (ipfw and ip6fw) is disabled by default on OS X Snow Leopard and only one firewall should be running at any given time. I recommend disabling it until we can confirm it doesn’t have issues. It was also deprecated post-10.6.8.

ipfw configuration files (at least on server) should be located at /etc/ipfilter/

Code: 
ip6fw.conf.apple
ip6fwstate-on
ip_ address_groups.plist
ip_address_groups.plist.default
ipfw.conf
ipfw.conf.apple
ipfw.conf.default
ipfwstate-on

Use the sysctl tool to enable/disable the firewall:

Code: 
$ sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1

You can disable the firewall by changing the setting to 0.

OS X has its own Apple Application Firewall which is the one that should be controlled by system preferences, and i’m not convinced that it’s behaving as it should be.

There is no GUI for ipfw (only on server) and both can be configured via command line or by editing their various preference and configuration files.

To enable or disable the apple application firewall from the command line, use the following:

Code: 
defaults write /System/Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate -int 1

0 - for off
1 - for only specific services
2 - for essential services only

The main preference file for the Application Firewall is located in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist

The executable files for the Application Firewall are located in /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall
 
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educovas said:
DMGs and DVDs would be expected. I'm interested on USB drives because when they are formatted as GPT and MBR, they will eject properly and the problem only occurs when the drive is formatted as Apple Partition Map. I'm trying to figure out if the problem is related to Apple partition Map or something else.

I'll try that app at some point and see if I can fix that OpenGL error.
Click to expand...
I will reformat an external drive and test this tomorrow @educovas.
 
mac57mac57 said:
@jktwice, I remember this issue from when I tried SLPPC last year. The work around was easy enough... go through the normal steps to eject the media, them go to the Finder menu and Quit Finder. This causes Finder to quit and restart. The mounted media is no longer there after the restart. It would appear that the Eject actually does work... the desktop just isn't updated with the result! Restarting Finder "fixes" that.

If you don't see a "Quit Finder" selection, use TinkerTool or OnyX to enable Finder to show it.
Click to expand...
The ‘quit Finder’ menu item can be added with a simple command:

Code: 
defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES
 
mac57mac57 said:
@ChrisCharman, perhaps I finished my last response too quickly.

Is there a complete list of the full set of "defaults write" for the stock Apple components of SLPPC?
Click to expand...
Not that i’m aware of but if i find one I’ll certainly share it as it would be very useful. Possibly somewhere in the Apple documentation although usually the relevant commands are in each section rather than compiled into a helpful list.
 
educovas said:
Could someone confirm if GPT and MBR USB disks are ejecting properly? would be nice to add this to the WikiPost if true.
Click to expand...
@educovas Fat32 behaves the same way. Apple Partition Map, Master Boot Record and GUID partition map all behave identically regardless of format and partition combinations. Disks are mounted and unmounted correctly but the icons remain on the desktop until the Finder is killed.
 
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I have double checked and confirmed that I did replace the two AHCI kexts in 10.6.8_A5 image. They are indeed the more recent versions found in 10.5.8, instead of the older 10A190 versions. A further update can be installed using the Performance Hardware Update, which bumps up the minor version of BlockStorage. Wikipost has been updated to reflect that omission.
 
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saxfun said:
some errors I got while playing around with 10.6.8:

1. usb drives couldn't ejected, e.g. the icon on the desktop didn't disappear
2. partitioning: I could not delete the first partition (on which 10.5.8 was installed) with disk utility as admin. when I did a "sudo su" on terminal I could delete the first partition. glueing together was not possible. when booting "bootable utilities" and starting up iPartition I could glue the the two partitions together so 10.6.8 has now all space.
3. on my A1138 the keyboard backlight is not working. the display shows a minus so I cannot change it. it is off.

over all 10.6.8 on the A1138 seems to be snappy.
Click to expand...
Today I received an A1138, tested the keyboard backlight and it works perfectly fine for me.
 
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